headsup: the blog

Thursday, December 08, 2016

Nonelongated creamy orb

A cheese ball is the culinary equivalent of a Rorschach test. How you
regard the creamy orb depends very much on where you were raised, how
you were raised and — especially when facing one of the lesser examples —
your emotional fortitude.

Getting an elongated yellow fruit into the lede takes some writering, doesn't it?

Monday, December 05, 2016

Two editors walk into a bar

So if two copy editors walk into a restaurant and see some dude waving a gun and proclaiming that he's there to investigate a made-up story about the Clinton campaign, they should:

a) Duckb) Report that the dude is investigating the fake newsc) Try the calamari! Thanks, I'll be here all week.

In the good old days, we could have had (d), avoid the assumption that self-proclaimed investigators hewing to a paranoid style of political discourse are actually doing the things they claim to be doing, particularly when it's going at the top of the front page. The naked guy waving a chainsaw to keep the invisible ammonia beings of Planet Mxyzptlk at bay doesn't get a hed proclaiming MAN FENDING OFF SPACE CREATURES HAS N.C. LINKS.

One would like to think this doesn't need explaining, but perhaps we need to start at the beginning with some stuff. And don't forget your server, folks.

Saturday, December 03, 2016

Second front

The right-wing news site Breitbart has declared “#WAR” on Kellogg’s, calling for a boycott of the cereal company’s products after they decided to cease advertising on the site.

... In response to Kellogg’s statement, Breitbart published a furious attack on the cereal company on Wednesday saying that the move represents “an escalation in the war by leftist companies ... against conservative customers”. Editor-in-chief Alexander Marlow called for a boycott of the company’s products, saying: “For Kellogg’s, an American brand, to blacklist Breitbart News in order to placate left-wing totalitarians is a disgraceful act of cowardice.”

How about two cops in a rowboat?

Well, that's a relief. Let's have a big-picture lede to set the stage before we start counting, and don't forget to mention those colleges and their safe spaces!

Since President-elect Donald Trump's victory, people have taken to
social media with concerns and fears about the incoming administration.
Riots, protests and the creation of safe spaces on college campuses have
rose* in the wake of an election that has left the country deeply
divided.

But Ali Olaikhan, a Muslim-American, argues Trump's comments were taken out of context.

So we're at one -- at least, one who (according to Fox) thinks some unspecified comments were taken out of context.

“I'm a Muslim, and I know what he says about Muslims,” said Olaikhan.
“I understand what he means. He's talking about the terrorists or the
extremists, of course."

Somebody helped to create this unbelievable American system that we have that allowed you to thrive. Somebody invested in roads and bridges. If you've got a business — that- you didn't build that. Somebody else made that happen.

But back to the latest demonstration of affection for the Dear Leader!Read more »

Wednesday, November 30, 2016

Today in GAAAAAAAH!

The baby names are back! It kind of pains me to acknowledge that I've been writing about the damn baby names since before the dissertation was finished, but at this point, it'd be ungrateful to deny the value of deranged racist paranoia to the overall scholarly project. And this time, Drudge seems to be committing a couple of basic violations of the way news works.

First, for you junior-league players, is the axiom that heds are drawn from the lede: If the reporter made something a priority, the hed writer either follows in train or -- should the reporter have somehow* missed the point -- fixes the lede so it reflects the real news. Thus, if you link to the Mirror, which kicks off with Posh and Becks:

Celebrities continue to be a source of inspiration for new parents choosing names for their children.

Coleen and Wayne Rooney's name choices have been extremely popular this year, with twice as many babies called Kit and Klay compared to last year.

But Olivia is officially the most popular name for girls and Oliver the most popular for boys.

... your job is to capture at least some of the Roonsian magic.

More importantly, though, your hed needs to reflect the news itself. In that Muhammad has been sneaking up on Jack (or Oliver) for years on end, your hed really ought to tell the audience how today is different from yesterday. "Muhammad in second" might have been a big deal when he was closing in, but -- unless the tables are fabricated -- the real story here seems to be that Muhammad has been knocked out of the top spot. You'd think that might be cause for dancing in the street for Drudge and his ilk. Perhaps he's still trying to figure out how to give credit to his tangerine master.

Saturday, November 26, 2016

Order word matters

Yeah, yeah, yeah. Space is limited, and it doesn't always lie in the configuration we wanted, and there's not an "error" here -- but if I had to call this one, I'd say Castro should be filed under Cuban revolutionary, not revolutionary Cuban.

An article on Monday about a rally to protest anti-Semitic, pro-Trump graffiti found in a Brooklyn Heights playground misidentified one of the songs protesters sang. It was “This Land Is Your Land,” not “America the Beautiful.”